We were up early we had to catch the 11:00 am Vande Bharat train form Lucknow Station to Ayodhya Cant. The aether in Lucknow had been cool and had rained on most days so the air was pleasant and cool on most afternoon. That made travelling around the city more fun and less tiring. But now It was time to explore Ayodhya the birthplace of Lord Rama and the city where the Babri Masjid was grazed to the ground. It is city where the new Ayodhya Ram mandir was unveiled by the new BJP government and that was the temple I most wanted to see. The train journey was very comfortable it’s as a nee train full ac with cushion seats and a goof fresh lunch was served to us as well. It’s as good a train service as one gets in Europe, I enjoyed the journey and was busy reading comic I had picked up from the book stall at the railway station.
The train journey was two hours long and soon we were at Ayodhya, we had decided to take up a simple hotel near the Ram Temple. The hotel was basic but most accommodation is basic here. Ayodhya is a small city but an ancient one, it is full of temples and remind me more of Haridwar. After taking some erst we decided to venture out and do some temple hopping. Our first stop was the ancient Sri Hanumat Bhawan, it is very old and many Hindus devotes come to pray here.
Next Stop was the Laxman Ghat, which was next to the Sarayu Nadi, which is a pious river for the people of Ayodhya, there is another temple called Ayodhya Dham here where I keenly watched a saint perform Pooja rituals and recite the verses of the Ramayana through a microphone. I walked across the riverbed which had many boats tied to its shores. Wooden boats are used to ferry tourists back and forth the great Sarayu. The boots had scared saffron flags with images of lord Ram and Hanuman painted on them, their sheer tied to the mast heads of the boats. They’re here huge wall paintings depicting images form the great epic Ramayana. I did not have the patience for a boat ride but instead watched the monkeys jumping from tree to tree eating bananas. The city is full of Monkeys and why not it was the monkeys who helped Rama vanquish the demon, Ravan. These animals are worshipped here, you can see monkeys prancing around many of the temples of Ayodhya looking for food. No one minds and most people enjoy feeding them it is like offering Prasad to hanuman.
Ayodhya
The best way to get about the city is by using the electric rickshaw, it is cheap and the most effective way to travel through the city to see all its sacred temples. The electric rickshaws are everywhere, and they are new, which emends the government has helped to make the transportation easier and safe for religious travelers.
Ayodhya by contrast to Lucknow was very hot, especially in the afternoons, my shirt would get wet with sweat, by the evening. It is advisable to have a lot of water as the city is quite hot and it can be de hydrating.
We also managed to see the Lata Mangeshkar Chowk which is a central part of Ayodhya. It was built in the honour of the great female singer the Nightingale of India Lata Ji.
There is a huge sculpture of a Veena, a musical instrument built to honour the famous singer along with a plague. One can just meander around the many by lanes or even sit on a bench to enjoy the sunset. In the evening the heat recedes a bit. Naturally we were hungry by all the wanderings and decided to die at the Robot restaurant, where the food is served by a AI robot to all the customers. I quite enjoyed the experience, never had a robot serve dinner to me like this and it was a novel experience. Ayodhya is a smaller city and very ancient, it is like an expanded version of a village. People here are very simple and almost everyone lives on religious tourism.
